Can't load RW2 files

Software HDRMerge
1

Hi,

I’m trying to open the RAW files from my Lumis S1R, which are in RW2 format, but the program give me this error:

Unable to open file C:/Users/Scanning-Workstation/Desktop/P1051017.RW2.

The help file says all cameras are supported and the RW2 format is also in the file extension list, so I’m not sure why it cannot open my files.

Anybody knows how to solve this?

Thanks!

2

What do you mean by “tryin to open”? Apparently you are working with Windows. But which application do you want to use to open the RW2? digiKam works fine, as does ART, the raw converter.

3

Ah sorry about that, I’m working with HDR merge. The error occurs when opening a file and then clicking Accept. And yes, I’m working in Windows.

4

Unfortunately HDRMerge has not been updated in years and the Windows package is probably shipping/relying on an older version of LibRaw (library for loading raw files) that does not support your specific camera model (I’m surprised the help would say “all cameras are supported”).

5

Oke so can I install an updated version of LibRaw? Or am I just out of luck?

6

Typically one cannot just swap libraries w/ large version jumps, and the whole app needs to be rebuilt from source (and possibly even patched). It’s best to contact whoever supplied/maintains the HDRMerge Windows package.

See also Is the HDRMerge project supported or being developed

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7

Btw, it looks like there was some more recent activity on github that adapted the HDRMerge codebase to more recent LibRaw, so it might be “just” a question of someone building and supplying a newer Windows package, unless you feel up to building it yourself… @gaaned92

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8

Oke great! I’ll have a look there and ask a few questions. Thanks for your help!

1 Like
9

Unfortunatly I can’t compile any software myself, I’m not a coder so I have no clue how that would work :sweat_smile:

10

I hope someone in the community steps up, there is interest…

11

That would be nice. Personally I want to use the program to process Albedo maps from my photometric stereo scanner. I tried know programs like Photoshop or Affinity but they all do something to the image. I want to work linearly and HDR merge seems to be perfect for this.

12

Hey, I also had some issue with RW2 files in other software; what you could try is to convert it to DNG, which is much more supported, and mostly importantly using option that will make it compatible with pretty older dng versions.

To get the Adobe Digital Negative converter software: https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/digital-negative.html

Then I recommend to not use the graphical inetrface and ratehr use the command line one:

https://helpx.adobe.com/content/dam/help/en/camera-raw/digital-negative/jcr_content/root/content/flex/items/position/position-par/download_section/download-1/dng_converter_commandline.pdf

mostly because the command-line expose a -u “uncompressed” option which I found to be the source of issue with some software.

You can also try the -crXX.X and -dngX.X flags (see doc for exact flag) to make sure the dng could be read by an older libraw version (haven’t tested).

1 Like
13

Sure, thanks for that reminder! (Older LibRaw and most other apps should be ok w/ DNG 1.4 compatibility.) And if one is going the DNG route, there is also the FLOSS dnglab alternative.

14

Thank you for responding. This could be an option, it’s an extra step but might be a solution, at the very least for testing it. Do you know if the Adobe Digital Negative software does anything to the photo?

15

If you choose the lossless or uncompressed options, the raw values should be completely preserved. There might be rare corner cases where some metadata doesn’t come across (or apps don’t know how to get all of it from a DNG while they could from the original raw format), so it’s recommended one keeps the originals around.